now some of this is because the u.s. travel market has begun to rebound. more people are renting cars all over the country. some have to do with hurricane sandy. 200,000 cars taken out of commission. and that should lead to a short term increase in demand. sandy bump won't last. the real reason for the resurface of the rental car business could be because of what happens in washington. it is one word. and that word is consolidation! over the last decade this industry has seen a series of merge ez that allowed the rental car companies to cut costs and also raise price. and with the recent acquisition of dollar thrifty by hertz, there are now only four players that really matter here. just four. and one of them, enterprise is private. which means you have only three possible ways to play this bull market. there is hertz, second largest player through enterprise and the largest traded rental company and avis. and now that thrifty is taken over, the last one is zip car. it's been a total dog. now back in june before we knew about the dollar thrifty deal, i tol